Expert: William Forster - 2/26/2007

Question
Hi, I recently took my chevy into the dealership for some work, they had also thrown in a free car wash. My question is, can the car wash at the dealerships cause a certain kind of damage to the exterior paint? For instance, I have recently noticed a  lot of scratches. I am thinking of the round spongy hair like swivel circular thing that turns round to clean a car, can these leave like circular scratching thropughout the exterior paint of the car. What I am seeing is like very small slightly visible circular painting on the exterior paint, almost like little scratches on the paint. "but completely covering the car" More so visible in the direct sunlight, where the circular motion paint like pattern is present. My question is was this how the car was painted? Or was this caused by a machine the dealership could have possibly used white washing the vehicle?

Thanks
Nick

Answer
Swirl marks are part of life. Get used to them. Dark colored cars show them most. Every time you wash a car, dry a car, or wax a car, it's inevetible that the car will get light marks from contamination on the surface. Wax the car with a good quality wax, and it will hide them. When you see the scratches again, the wax has evaporated, and it needs another coat. Bill